A R C H I T E C T U R E

C I V I L

E N G I N E E R I N G

E N V I R O N M E N T

T h e S i l e s i a n U n i v e r s i t y o f Te c h n o l o g y

N o. 3 / 2 0 0 8

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF CONCRETE AND CONCRETE

STRUCTURES TOWARD SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
Koji SAKAI *
*Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan

E-mail address: sakai@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp

Received: 23.06.2008; Revised: 09.07.2008; Accepted: 13.08.2008

Abstract
Concrete and construction industries have consumed an enormous amount of resources and energy and generated a large
amount of wastes. We need to properly manage them from the environmental point of view. In this paper, environmental
aspects of concrete and some systems for environmental management in the design of concrete structures are discussed.
Streszczenie
Przemys betonowy i budowlany pochony ogromn ilo zasobw naturalnych i energii wytwarzajc wielkie iloci
odpadw. Z punktu widzenia rodowiska musimy odpowiednio tymi odpadami zarzdza. Artyku omawia aspekty
rodowiskowe betonu oraz niektrych systemw zarzdzania rodowiskiem w procesie projektowania konstrukcji z betonu.
K e y w o r d s : Concrete; composite-evaluation bid system; environmental aspects; environmental management; environmental design; ISO standards.

1. INTRODUCTION
The environmental issue has now become the most
crucial and serious problem for the continued existence of humankind. The earths resources and energy
have been consumed in great quantities by the rapid
industrialization and population growth over a span of
more than two hundred years since the industrial revolution, resulting in global environment changes that
humankind have never experienced. Fortunately, the
humankind has clearly recognized the nature of the
problem, creating a concept of sustainable development, which may be regarded as an environmental
revolution. This concept means development that
meets the needs of not only the present but also future
generations while radically renouncing the conventional economic values-mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal. Incorporation of the
concept of sustainability will be required for all social,
economic, and cultural activities in the future.
As a system for coping with such circumstances, ISO

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has already published environmental standards, ISO

14000 series, which provide general rules related to
methods of assessing environmental loads and the
environmental declaration based on such assessment.
Since these standards primarily cover industrial products and services, ISO 15686-6 and ISO 21930 were
developed to cover buildings, which have strong
impacts on the environment. The former deals with
the basic framework of the procedure for considering
the environmental aspects of buildings, whereas the
latter deals with that for issuing environmental declaration regarding building products. These can be
regarded as standards in which the concept of ISO
14000 is specialized for buildings.
Concrete is used in abundance for buildings and civil
structures. Among the 10 billion ton annual concrete
production worldwide, cement production, which is
known to involve massive amounts of CO2 generation,
accounts for 2 billion tons, and this amount is expected to multiply two to three times in the future.

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The massiveness of the quantity of resources used for

concrete is understood in consideration of the fact
that the worlds current annual material flow is
approximately 26 billion tons. The resulting massive
stock is ultimately demolished, and the disposal of
the huge amount of concrete lumps places a heavy
burden on the environment.
Thus, the construction and the eventual demolition
of concrete structures require a huge amount of
resources and energy, and as a result, a lot of materials that place burdens on the environment are emitted. Therefore, it is highly important for the concrete
sector to clearly understand the environmental
aspects of the sector and the current status of such
aspects, and to build up a system for appropriate
environmental management in order to reduce environmental burdens. In so doing, it is essential to
develop a system for rationally conducting the environmental design of a concrete structure.
In this paper, the environmental aspects of concrete
and related technologies are outlined, and the current status and future prospects of some systems for
environmental management, that reduces the environmental burdens of concrete and concrete structures, are discussed. In addition, some examples of
the environmental design of a concrete structure are
shown to get the future perspectives of environmental design.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS IN CONCRETE

2.1. Aggregate
It is said that, of the approximately 26 billion tons of
annual material flow throughout the world, aggregate
used as a construction material accounts for some 20
billion tons [1]. In other words, natural sand, gravel
and crushed stone exist most abundantly in the natural world, thus these materials are most frequently
used for infrastructure development. Although the
aggregate situation varies by country and region, the
replacement of natural aggregate with crushed stone
aggregate has progressed in recent years due to environmental restrictions. It is believed that this has also
led to changes in the quality of aggregate, which
greatly affects the quality and durability of concrete.
Crushed stone aggregate usually has sharp edges,
thereby increasing the water content of concrete, and
the energy used for the production of crushed stone
has an adverse impact on the environment.
Moreover, the development of quarries is also causing environmental problems.
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In recent years it has been said that infrastructure

development has matured in Japan. While the number of national highways and bridges 50 years or
older managed by nation and local governments in
Japan was 8,191 in 2005, it is expected to increase to
63,494 by 2025 [2]. Reconstruction of structures is
also increasing in urban areas. According to the estimate by the Development Bank of Japan [3], the total
amount of concrete masses to be generated in 2025 is
estimated to be 210 million tons, which is a twofold
increase of the 112 million tons generated in 2005.
These amounts are extremely high, considering that
the total concrete production for Japan in 2005 was
approximately 285 million tons. While most concrete
masses have been used as base course materials, their
demand is expected to decrease dramatically. Since
the use of these as recycled aggregate is crucial considering the pressure on waste disposal sites and the
preservation of aggregate resources, the development of technologies for recycled aggregate production is being promoted.
Technologies for recycled aggregate production in
Japan include the heating and rubbing [4], eccentricshaft rotor [5] and mechanical grinding [6] methods.
In the heating and rubbing method, concrete masses
are heated at 300 deg. Celsius and the cement paste
content is weakened to remove mortar and cement
paste from the aggregate. Figure 1 shows an overview
of a recycled aggregate production system using this
method. Figure 2 illustrates the recycled coarse and
fine aggregate produced by the system. While the
production of recycled aggregate generated a large
amount of fine powder, it also indicated the possibility of using fine powder like this as a substitute solidification material for the deep mixing stabilization
method (soil cement walls) [7]. In the eccentric-shaft
rotor method, crushed concrete lumps are passed
downward between an outer cylinder and an inner
cylinder that eccentrically rotates at a high speed to
separate it into coarse aggregate and mortar through
a grinding effect. Figure 3 presents an overview of a
recycled aggregate production system using this
method. Mechanical grinding is a method used to
produce coarse and fine aggregate by separating a
drum into small sections with partitions, loading the
drum with iron balls for grinding and rotating the
partitions. Figure 4 shows an overview of the recycled
aggregate production system using this method. The
coarse aggregate produced by these methods has
been used for actual construction projects.

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Figure 1.
Production technology of recycled aggregate (heating and
rubbing method)

Table 1.
Physical properties requirements for recycled aggregate H
Figure 2.
Recycled aggregates by heating and rubbing method

Items

Coarse
aggregate

Fine aggregate

Oven-dry density,
g/cm3

not less than 2.5

not less than 2.5

Water absorption, % not more than 3.0 not more than 3.0
Abrasion, %

not more than 35

NA

Solid volume percentage for shape

not less than 55
not less than 53
determination, %
Amount of material
passing test sieve not more than 1.0 not more than 7.0
75m, %
Chloride ion content,
% (NaCl)

Figure 3.
Production technology of recycled aggregate (eccentric-shaft
rotor method)

Table 2.
Limits of amount of deleterious substances for recycled
aggregate H
Category

Deleterious substances

Limits (mass %)

Tile, Brick, Ceramics,

Asphalt

2.0

Glass

0.5

Plaster

0.1

Inorganic substances
other than plaster

0.5

Plastics

0.5

Wood, Paper, Asphalt

0.1

Figure 4.
Production technology of recycled aggregate (mechanical
grinding method)

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not more than 0.04

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In Japan, JIS A 5021[8] was established in 2005 as a

standard for high-quality recycled aggregate H for
concrete, which is produced through advanced processing, including crushing, grinding and classifying,
of concrete masses generated in the demolition of
structures. Recycled aggregate H must have physical
properties satisfying the requirements listed in
Table 1. There are also upper limits for the amounts
of deleterious substances contained in recycled
aggregate H, as shown in Table 2. JIS A 5023 has also
been established as a standard for recycled concrete
using low-quality recycled aggregate L. This type of
concrete includes backfilling, filling and levelling
concrete, and the use of Type B blended cement and
admixture is required as a measure against alkali-silica reactivity.

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Production of recycled aggregate usually involves

greater energy use compared with that of virgin
aggregate, thus leading to greater environmental
impacts. While finding ways to deal with these environmental impacts as an external cost is a major
issue, it would be ideal to absorb this cost in the
entire production/use system of recycled aggregate.
As shown in Figure 5, Kuroda et al. [9] established an
on-site concrete resource recycling system from this
standpoint, and proved that CO2 emissions from the
system were lower than those in which it was used as
a conventional base course material. This was
achieved by reducing the amount of transported
material and the use of fine powder as a substitute
solidification material for ground improvement.
Yanagibashi [10] studied CO2 emissions in cases of
use of recycled aggregate for base course material
made of concrete masses, use of recycled coarse
aggregate for concrete and recycled sand for base
course and backfill materials, and use of recycled
coarse aggregate for concrete and the remaining
amount for cement clinker. The paper concluded that
the use of recycled aggregate was an environmentally
friendly method that could contribute to the preservation of natural aggregate since CO2 emissions were
nearly identical.

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sewage sludge has become common in Japan due to

pressures on waste disposal site and problems related
to dioxin and heavy metals. Molten slag is generated
as a residue after melting treatment. In 2004, 144
waste and 18 sewage sludge melting treatment facilities were in operation throughout Japan, producing
480,000 and 44,000 tons of molten slag, respectively.
Waste molten slag production is estimated to reach as
high as 2.7 million tons in the future. Melting treatment was also commenced in 2005 for 600,000 tons of
illegally dumped industrial waste in Teshima, Kagawa
Prefecture [13]. Approximately 300,000 tons of
molten slag is to be produced for 10 years, and the
prefecture government has decided to use the entire
amount as aggregate for concrete. Basic studies on
the application of municipal solid waste and Teshima
molten slag to concrete have been conducted [14],
[15]. Molten slag is characterized by low water-retentivity since it is vitreous. When it is used in large
amounts, bleeding increases and leads to a decease of
the strength of concrete and, in case of reinforced
concrete, a decrease in the bond of reinforcing bars
to concrete. The permissible replacement ratio of
molten slag for fine aggregate thus varies according
to the performance required for concrete. It is also
necessary to pay attention to aluminum, which is a
metal contained in molten slag, since it may cause
expansion and deterioration of concrete as it reacts
with the alkali of cement and generates hydrogen. In
Japan, JIS A 5031 [16] was established for molten
slag aggregate for concrete. Table 3 lists the physical
properties of molten slag required by this standard.
Table 3.
Physical properties requirements for molten slag aggregates

Figure 5.
CO2 emission in usual and closed-looped concrete recycle
system

Iron and steel slag is also used as aggregate. In 2005,

25,747,000 tons of blast-furnace slag and 14,897,000
tons of steelmaking (converter and electric-furnace)
slag were generated in Japan [11]. Of these, blast-furnace slag was primarily used as aggregate for concrete, and its amount was 3,158,000 tons.
While fly ash has been used as a substitute admixture
for cement, the idea of using this as fine aggregate
has emerged in recent years [12]. Considering the
worldwide increase in fly ash production expected in
the future, it is desirable to design a mix that integrates substitutes for cement and fine aggregate.
In recent years, melting treatment of waste and

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Molten slag
Items

Coarse
aggregate

Fine aggregate

Oven-dry density,
g/cm3

not less than 2.5

not less than 2.5

Water absorption,
not more than 3.0 not more than 3.0
%
Soundness, %

not less than 12

not less than 10

Solid volume percentage for shape not less than 55

not less than 53
determination, %
Amount of material
passing test sieve not more than 1.0 not more than 7.0
75m, %

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Figure 6.
Estimated cement demand

Figure 7.
Unit-based CO2 emission in cement manufactures

Figure 8.
Amount of wastes utilization for cement production in Japan

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Figure 9.
International comparison of energy consumption in cementclinker production

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Cement is the most important basic material for infrastructure development. There are two aspects of
cement production and its relation to the environment
CO2 emissions and the use of waste as a raw material and fuel. Japans cement production, including
blended cement and export, has amounted to more
than 800 million tons in the last 10 years. The worlds
cement production is thought to be approximately
2 billion tons at present. Figure 6 shows the cement

demand predicted by Humphreys et al. [17].

According to this prediction, production is expected to
reach approximately 4 billion tons 30 years from now.
Figure 7 displays the CO2 emission unit of cement production in each country/region. Based on the mean
value 0.87(kg-CO2/kg-Cement) of these, CO2 emissions from cement production totalling 4 billion tons is
estimated to be approximately 3.5 billion tons, which is
2.7 times as high as Japans current total CO2 emissions (approx. 1.3 billion tons). Also, based on the lowest CO2 emission unit of Japan (0.73), the worlds CO2
emissions are expected to reach approximately 2.9 billion tons 30 years from now. This means that the
worlds cement-originated CO2 emissions can be
reduced by approximately 8% through the use of
Japans cement production technology.
Nearly 30 million tons of waste and by-products are
currently used as raw materials and fuels for cement
production in Japan. Such raw materials include blastfurnace slag, fly ash and sewage sludge, and fuels
include waste tires and plastic. Figure 8 illustrates the
changes in cement production and use of waste and
by-products in Japan. It can be seen that the use of
waste and by-products is steadily increasing while
cement production is decreasing. The cement industry
is setting a target value of 400 kg/t-cement for 2010.
Figure 9 shows an international comparison of energy
consumption per ton of cement clinker, in which Japan
displays incomparably high energy efficiency. It can be
seen from this that Japan has exceptional cement production technology. This means that CO2 emissions
associated with the construction of concrete structures
is being reduced as a consequence.

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2.2. Cement

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2.2.1. Admixtures
It can be said that basic technologies have already
been established for the use of admixtures in concrete [18], [19]. Admixtures have been used for concrete for the effective use of industrial by-products
and improvement in concrete properties through
their utilization. In recent years, however, their
importance in the reduction of environmental
impacts has also attracted attention.

Figure 10.
Utilization of blast furnace slag in Japan

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As shown in Figure 10, approximately 67% of blastfurnace slag was used for blast-furnace cement in
Japan in 2005. This means that the performance of
blast-furnace slag is used in the most rational manner. Figure 11 presents the breakdown of the use of
coal ash (9,792,000 tons) in Japan in 2004 [20]. Of the
70% used in the field of cement, the majority was
used as a raw material for cement production.
Although the amount of fly ash that can be used for
concrete is approximately 20% of the total production of coal ash, its use as an admixture for concrete
is only about 1%. This situation is not appropriate
considering the excellent performance of fly ash as an
admixture. Approximately 10% of the coal ash produced in Japan is currently disposed of in landfills.
Figure 12 shows the estimated volumes of admixture
production in the world in 2002 and 2020 [21]. In particular, the production volumes of fly ash and blastfurnace slag are expected to increase 1.7 and 3 times,
respectively. By effective use of these increased volumes of admixtures, it will become possible to reduce
environmental impacts caused by the future increase
in concrete demand.

3. SYSTEMS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL

IMPACT REDUCTION
3.1. Standardization
According to ISO, the ISO 14000 family consists of standards related to environmental management systems
and others which are specific tools for realizing environmental policy and achieving objectives and targets.
In the ISO 14000 family, there are ISO 14020 series and
ISO 14040 which may be related to concrete.
The framework of ISO 14020 family, Environmental

Figure 11.
Utilization of fly ash in Japan

Figure 12.
Estimated world admixture minerals production

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The framework of ISO 14040 family, Environmental

management Life cycle assessment, is as follows:
ISO 14040 [9] Principle and framework
ISO 14041 [10] Goal and scope definition and
inventory
analysis
ISO 14042 [11] Life cycle impact assessment
ISO 14043 [12] Life cycle interpretation
In ISO 14040, it is defined that LCA is a technique
for assessing the environmental aspects and potential
impacts associated with a product, by a) compiling an
inventory of relevant inputs and outputs of a product
system; b) evaluating the potential environmental
impacts associated with those inputs and outputs; c)
interpreting the results of the inventory analysis and
impact assessment phases in relation to the objectives
of the study. As the general categories of environmental impacts requiring consideration, the use of
resource, human health and ecological consequences
are raised. The purpose of LCA is to assist in a) identifying opportunities to improve the environmental
aspects of products at various points in their life
cycle; b) decision-making in industry, government or
non-governmental organizations; c) selection of relevant indicators of environmental performance; d)
marketing. One of the important things in life cycle
assessment is system boundary, which is interface
between a product system and the environment or
other product systems. In other words, system boundaries determine which unit processes, smallest portions of a product system, shall be included within the
LCA.
ISO 14041 specifies the requirements and the procedures necessary for the compilation and preparation
of the definition of goal and scope for a LCA, and for
performing, interpreting and reporting a life cycle
inventory analysis. As the goal of an LCA study, the
intended application, the reasons for carrying out the
study and the intended audience shall be stated clearly. The scope of the study shall consider all relevant
items in accordance with ISO 14040. A life cycle
inventory analysis (LCI) is concerned with the data
collection and calculation procedures.
The purpose of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA)
is to assess a product systems life cycle inventory
analysis (LCI) results to better understand their environmental significance. The LCIA phase models
selected environmental issues, called impact categories, and use category indicators. Impact category
is class representing environmental issues of concern
to which LCI results may be assigned. Climate
change, acidification etc. are the examples of impact
category. Category indicators are intended to reflect

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labels and declarations, is as follows:

ISO 14020 General principles
ISO 14021 Self-declared environmental claims
(Type II environmental labelling)
ISO 14024 Type I environmental labelling
Principles and procedures
ISO/FDIS Type III environmental declarations
Principles and procedures
ISO 14020 provides guiding principles for the development and use of environmental labels and declarations, the claim which indicates the environmental
aspects of a product or service. An environmental
label or declaration may, among other things, take
the form of a statement, symbol or graphic on a product or package label, in product literature, in technical bulletins, in advertising or in publicity. The objective of environmental labels and declarations is to
encourage the demand for and supply of those products and services that cause less stress on the environment, thereby stimulating the potential for market-driven continuous environmental improvement.
There are nine principles for environmental labels
and declarations. For example, Principle 1 is that
environmental labels and declarations shall be accurate, verifiable, relevant and not misleading.
Principle 3 is that environmental labels and declarations shall be based on scientific methodology that is
sufficiently thorough and comprehensive to support
the claim and that produces results that are accurate
and reproducible. Principle 5 is that the development
of environmental labels and declarations shall take
into consideration all relevant aspects of the product
life cycle.
ISO 14024 provides the principles and procedures for
developing Type I environmental labelling programmes and for assessing and demonstrating compliance. The certificate procedures for awarding the
label are also provided. ISO 14021 specifies requirements for self-declared environmental claims, including statements, symbols and graphics, regarding
products. In other words, this standard describes a
general evaluation and verification methodology for
self-declared environmental claims and specific evaluation and verification methods for the selected
claims. ISO/FDIS 14025 provides the principles and
specifies the procedures for developing Type III environmental declaration programmes and Type III
environmental declarations. Type III environmental
declarations are primarily intended for use in business-to-business communication, but their use in
business-to-consumer communication under certain
conditions is not precluded.

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the aggregate emissions or resource use for each

impact category. Category endpoint is considered as
the attribute or aspect of natural environment,
human health or resources, identifying an environmental issue of concern. For example, the category
endpoints due to acidification are forest, vegetation,
etc.
The purpose of life cycle interpretation is to summarize and discuss the results of LCI and LCIA or both
as a basis for conclusions, recommendations and
decision-making. In other words, the objectives of life
cycle interpretation are to analyze results, reach conclusions, explain limitations and provide recommendations based on the findings of the LCA or LCI
study and to report the results of the life cycle interpretation in a transparent manner.
ISO 15686 family is the standards on Buildings and
constructed assets Service life planning , which consist of the followings:
Part 1 General principles
Part 2 Service life prediction procedures
Part 3 Performance audits and reviews
Part 5 Whole life costing
Part 6 Procedures for considering environmental
impacts
Part 7 Performance evaluation for feedback of
service life data from practice
Part 8 Reference service life
These standards cover buildings and everything that
is constructed, including civil engineering structures.
Service life planning, which may be called service life
design, is the preparation of the brief and design for
the buildings and constructed assets and its parts to
achieve the desired design life, for example in order
to reduce the costs of building ownership and facilitate maintenance and refurbishment.
ISO 15686 Part 6 describes how and when to include
environmental aspects into the design of buildings
and constructed assets. It provides a procedure for
assessing the relative environmental impacts of
design options and also it identifies the interface
between environmental life cycle assessment and service life planning. In order to make meaningful comparisons of options, their functional equivalency
should be determined. After identifying functionally
equivalent options, environmental information for
these options should be gathered and assessed in the
life cycle. On the other hand, this standard describes
that when implementing life cycle assessment in service life planning, it is anticipated, in most situations,
the LCA will not be performed within the procedure;
rather; existing data sets should be considered and
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combined in order to model current design option.

However, it will be difficult to follow this procedure.
It means that this standard is not utilized practically.
Therefore, we need to develop a standard, which can
be applied for concrete structures.
ISO 21930 [20] is the standard on Sustainability in
building construction Environmental declaration of
building products. This standard provides the principles and requirements for Type III environmental
declarations of building products. It gives guidelines
for the development and implementation of
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) on the
life cycle assessment in order to ensure transparency
of the methodology applied for developing the EPD
for building products. The objective of EDP is to
encourage the demand for and supply of building
products that cause less stress on the environment,
through communication of verifiable and accurate
information on environmental aspects of those building products that is not misleading, thereby stimulating the potential for market-driven continuous environmental improvement. The content of EPD
includes general information, such as the name and
address of the manufacturer, and environmental
aspects, such as
1) environmental impacts expressed with the impact
category
climate change (CO2-equivalent)
destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer
(CFC 11-equivalents)
acidification of land and water sources
eutrophication
formation of tropospheric ozone (photochemical
oxidants)
depletion of renewable energy resources
depletion of non renewable mineral resources
2) Use of renewable resources and renewable primary energy
use of renewable resources
use of renewable primary energy
consumption of freshwater
3) Waste to disposal
hazardous waste
non hazardous waste
4) Emissions to water, soil and indoor air
and additional environmental information, such as
impact and potential impact on biodiversity, toxicity
related to human health and/or the environment.
EPD will be effective when the related people want
to know the impact of the building on the environment. However, if the impacts are not compared with
a reference data, it will not work. In other words, the

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Figure 13.
Interface between the existing standards and the newly developed standards in ISO XXXXX

3.2. Composite-Evaluation Bid System

Generally speaking, in order to reduce environmental impacts associated with the construction of concrete structures, the current state of such impacts
must first be known and new technologies and systems introduced. Where goals can be achieved by
adopting existing technologies and systems, few
major challenges will emerge. However, the reduction of environmental impacts has always been difficult, as it requires the development of new technologies and the introduction of high-cost technologies.
This is the reason why the environment has been
dealt with as an external diseconomy. Such external
diseconomies should be internalized in one way or
another and appropriately assessed. This should ideally be guided by market principles, but such incentives will not emerge without the implementation of a
reasonable system.
The composite-evaluation bid system is a method to
incorporate environmental aspects into a bidding

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characteristics of concrete and concrete structures

and the existing ISO Environmental Standards are
considered, is developed.
ISO XXXXX provides the procedures to consider
environmental aspects regarding manufactures
and recycles of concrete, and design, execution,
reuse, and demolition of a concrete structure.
ISO XXXXX provides the procedures to implement the LCA of concrete and concrete structures.
The pollutions to water, soil and indoor air, and
noise and vibration will also be dealt with
Figure 13 indicates the interface between the existing
standards and the newly developed standards.

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objective of EPD will not be achieved. Therefore, a

system to operate this standard should be established.
Concrete is used in abundance for buildings and civil
structures. Among the 10 billion tons annual concrete
production worldwide, the cement production, which
is known to involve massive amounts of CO2 generation, accounts for 2 billion tons, and this amount is
expected to multiply many times in the future. The
massiveness of the quantity of resources used for concrete is understood in consideration of the fact that
the worlds current annual material flow is approximately 26 billion tons. The resulting massive stock is
ultimately demolished, and the disposal of the huge
amount of concrete lumps places a heavy burden on
the environment. In contrast to reinforcement and
other steel products, most concrete is used as semifinished products. After being produced in readymixed concrete plants, concrete is placed, consolidated, and cured at the job site. These processes require
various other materials, such as supporting and formwork. Also, concrete structures are designed and constructed under various conditions, while involving
sludge treatment concomitant with concrete production, as well as the use of supplementary cementing
materials such as blast-furnace slag and fly ash as
concrete materials. Environmental load assessment is
also affected by other important factors. These
include policies for the inventory of concrete materials and system boundaries and the transportation
methods and route setting of materials and products.
Concrete and concrete structures are thus made into
their intended forms through such extremely complicated processes. It is therefore exceptionally difficult
to directly apply the existing ISO environmental standards without common rules on the environmental
aspects at each stage, and more specific standards
specialized for concrete are essential for the concrete
sector and related sectors. Based on the background,
ISO/TV71 established SC8 for developing the environmental standards for concrete and concrete structures (Environmental aspects of concrete and concrete structures).
The basic ideas to develop the standards are as follows:
The consistency among ISO Environmental
Standards shall be kept. ISO XXXXX will be
developed from the viewpoint of how ISO 14000
and 15686 series are practically applied for concrete and concrete structures. Namely, it should be
usable standard.
In this standard, a new framework, in which the

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process. Introduction of this method has started

recently in Japan, but the way the system is used is
rather primitive and the environmental aspects hardly function. Traditionally, successful bidders are the
ones who submit the lowest bids using standard
design and construction methods. The compositeevaluation bid system, on the other hand, assesses a
non-price factor (technical capacity) as well, and bidders are assessed technically and monetarily. The
assessment score is calculated by the following formula:
Assessment score = (Basic point + +) /Bidding price
(1)
Where, the basic point is a standard point and the full
100 points are awarded when all requirements are
met, is a technical proposal point (max. 70 points),
and is an execution system point (max. 30 points).
In short, compared with the case where and are
zero, this system allows the maximum planned price
to double, and any increase in cost due to the introduction of environmental technologies can reasonably be absorbed.
To apply environmental technologies to concrete
structures and incorporate them in the compositeevaluation bid system, the substance of technical proposals and their reasonable and objective evaluation
are essential. The reason why the application of the
composite-evaluation bid system is difficult, despite
its availability, is that technical development related
to concrete has not been pursued from environmental perspectives, and therefore, assessment principles
for environmental technologies have not clearly been
established. It is hoped that the composite-evaluation
bid system will provide future incentives for the
development of environmental technologies in the
field of concrete.

4. ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
4.1. JSCE Recommendation of Environmental
Performance Verification for Concrete Structures
[22]
The Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) published the Recommendation of Environmental
Performance Verification for Concrete Structures
(draft) in 2005. This Recommendation provides general principles of consideration concerning environmentality when conducting design, construction, use,
maintenance/management, dismantling, disposal and
reuse after dismantling of a concrete structure. Its

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purpose is to extend the application of performance

verification concept on safety, serviceability and
durability of concrete structures to the environment. The Recommendation consists of chapters on
general rules, environmentality, evaluation and verification of environmental performance, inspection
and records. The following are listed as items that
must be taken into account when considering the
environmental aspects of concrete structures:
Greenhouse gas, air contaminants, resources /energy, waste
Water and soil contaminants
Noise/vibration
Others
The following are also provided as methods to be
used for evaluation of environmental performance:
LCA method for evaluation of the emission of
greenhouse gasses and air contaminants, consumption of resources/energy, waste generation, etc.
Appropriate testing and measurement methods for
identification and quantitative evaluation of the
substances causing water and soil contamination
Direct measurements, reliable prediction methods
or a combination of both for evaluation of noise,
vibration, etc
Others
The Recommendation also gives examples of basic
environmental impact units and integration factors
necessary for evaluation of environmental performance related to design, construction and other
aspects of concrete structures.
The verification of environmental performance is the
act of confirming that the value of performance
retained by a structure (R) is larger (or smaller) than
the set value (S) based on the performance requirements for the structure concerning the environmental
aspect subject to the verification. For example, verification of CO2 emissions can be passed if the calculated
value of CO2 associated with an actual structure is
smaller than the absolute value of CO2 emissions set as
the performance requirement (or the value based on
the reduction rate from the standard value). In case of
the use of a byproduct, the minimum amount that must
be used is set as the performance requirement, which is
satisfied if the amount used for a structure is larger than
this value. While environmental performance requirements may include legal regulations, demands of the
owners and intentions of the designer, they are referred
to as the regulation value, limit value and target value,
respectively, in the Recommendation.
When considering the environmental performance by

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4.2. Application of the JSCE Recommendation [23]

An example of the application of the JSCE recommendation is described as follows:
1) General
There is a plan to renew reinforced concrete pedesTable 5.
Mix proportions of UFC
Water
180

Unit:
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kg/m3,

Cement

Grain (quartz,
sand, etc.)

Steel fibers

818

1479

157

the water includes water content in superplasticizer, 19

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Super-plasticizer
24

kg/m3
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trian bridge across a river. Considering the span of

the bridge, approximately 50 m, a three-span prestressed concrete bridge is conventionally one option.
However, according to the required performance
regarding environmental impact reduction, a new
technology needs to be introduced.
2) Environmental performance requirement
A 20% reduction of CO2 emission in the construction
of the pedestrian bridge was required compared with
conventional structure as an environmental performance requirement.
3) Solution
Ultra high-strength steel fiber-reinforced concrete
(UFC) can dramatically reduce the dead weight of a
structure because of its excellent strength characteristics. The foundation can be thinner as a result and may
also lead to the reduction of construction costs. The
maintenance cost can also be reduced because of the
excellent durability of UFC. Table 5 and Figure 14
show the mix proportions and the bending behaviour
of UFC. Steel fiber of 0.2 mm in diameter, 15 mm in
length and 2800 N/mm2 in tensile strength was mixed.
UFC was used to construct a 50.2-meter-long
2.4-meter-wide outer-cable prestressed bridge with an
un-reinforced box-type closed section with variable
web height (upper slab thickness = 5 cm, web thickness = 8 cm). Figure 15 and 16 show the general view
and cross section of this bridge, respectively. The dead
weight of the bridge was 560 kN. Precast blocks consisting of three types of segment blocks were manufactured at a precast concrete product plant. They were
cured twice. Sheet curing was first conducted in an
open-air environment, followed by a 48-hour steam
curing at 90C. If this bridge was to be designed as a
three-span, PC simple slab bridge (hereinafter
referred to simply as PC bridge), which is thought to
be the most rational for its conditions, its dead weight
would be 2,780 kN, approximately 5 times that of the
UFC bridge. Figure 17 shows a general view of the
hypothetical PC bridge.
4) CO2 Emission of UFC pedestrian bridge and verification
The CO2 emissions from the production of the mate-

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comparative design, the designer is not necessarily

required to set a target value, and verification will
become unnecessary if the decision-maker selects an
appropriate one from the environmental performance evaluation results of several designs.
In the design of concrete structures, safety, serviceability and durability have been verified. In the
future, the consideration of environmentality will
become necessary in addition to these. It is, however,
obvious that environmentality is essentially different
from safety etc. This means that, in case of design for
safety, a structure is required not to cause direct damage to people or society by its destruction. As for
environmentality, no reasonable systems have been
established for the control of greenhouse gases, air
contaminants, resources/energy and waste, although
direct contamination and noise have been taken into
account under legal regulations. This is because the
final damage of global environment issues is yet to be
clarified. Although it is easy to imagine that various
substances generated as a result of human activities
will eventually cause damage to humans, society and
ecosystems, the problem is that it is difficult to evaluate these damages quantitatively. It is, however, necessary to prevent further aggravation of the situation
by not taking any measures merely because of the
lack of clarity regarding these damages.
The Recommendation of Environmental Performance
Verification for Concrete Structures (draft) presented
here was developed based on the idea that systems to
enable reduction of environmental impacts should be
established in a variety of concrete-related activities.
While this Recommendation (draft) is based on the performance verification system of the JSCE Standard
Specifications for Concrete structures, it can also be used
for comparative design related to environmental performance or environmental labels/declarations of ISO.

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Figure 14.
Flexural behaviour of ultra high-strength steel-fiber reinforced concrete

Figure 15.
Sectional view of UFC bridge

Figure 16.
General view of UFC bridge

Figure 17.
General view of hypothetical PC bridge

Figure 18.
CO2 emissions of UFC and PC bridges

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rials, steel forms, and UFC beams or pre-tension hollow beams, the transport and construction were calculated for UFC and PC bridges. Figure 18 shows the
results. By utilizing UFC, CO2 emissions could be
reduced by approximately 25% in all, compared with
a conventional PC bridge. The environmental
requirement was verified, i.e. the environmental performance requirement regarding CO2, S, was less
than the retained performance, R. For the calculation of CO2 emission, the JSCE unit-based substance
emission data base [4] was used.

5. CONCLUDING REMARKS
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change) adopted the Fourth Assessment Report,
which integrated Assessment Reports that had been
published successively by three Working Groups
since the beginning of 2007. In the Fourth Report, it
is clearly stated that global warming was induced by
human activities. It is reported that the average global temperatures could rise by up to 6.4 degrees
Celsius by the end of this century and that in order to
limit temperature rise to 2 to 3 degrees Celsius,
greenhouse gas emissions must be halved by 2050. As
shown by the IPCC and Al Gore, the former Vice
President of the United States who directed a movie
titled An Inconvenient Truth, having jointly won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, global warming has
become the most important political issue in the
world. We must say that the amount of greenhouse
gas emission reductions from 1990 levels required
under the Kyoto Protocol means virtually nothing,
but it was an important decision that marked the
beginning of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The current status of social infrastructure development is diversified in the world. Among developed
countries, infrastructure development has reached
maturity and its maintenance and operation are
increasingly important, whereas the current status is
different among developing countries, ranging from
countries that have already begun building basic
infrastructure for economic development to those
that need to start construction of entire infrastructures from now. However, when we look at the situation from a long-term perspective, developed countries will need to update their infrastructures in the
future. In this way, it is obvious that a tremendous
amount of resources and energy is required for the
improvement of infrastructures worldwide.

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[1]

Brown L.R.; Eco-economy, Earth Policy Institute,

2001.

[2]

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

2005, White paper on land, infrastructure and transport in Japan, 2005.

[3]

Development Bank of Japan 2002,Urban renewal

and resource recycling: For the creation of a resource
recycling society, Research Report No.28, 2002.

[4]

Tateyashiki H., Okamoto M., Nishimura Y., Kuroda Y.;

Experimental studies on production of high quality
recycle aggregate from demolished concrete, Proc. of
the Japan Concrete Institute, Vol.22 No.2, 2000,
pp.1099-1104 (in Japanese).

[5]

Yanagibashi K., Yonezawa T., Kamiyama Y., Inoue T.;

Study on high quality recycle aggregates, Proceedings
of the Japan Concrete Institute, Vol.21 No.2, 1999,
pp.205-210 (in Japanese).

[6]

Yoda K., Shintani A., Takahashi I., Yanagase S.;

Quality of recycles coarse and fine aggregates produced by mechanical grinding, Proc. of the Japan
Concrete Institute, Vol.26 No.1, 2004, pp.1627-1532
(in Japanese).

[7]

Uchiyama S., Kuroda Y., Hashida H.; Deep mixing stabilization using concrete powder from recycled aggregate production by heating and rubbing, The
Foundation Engineering & Equipment, July 2003,
pp.62-65 (in Japanese).

[8]

Japan Standards Association (JIS A 5021), Recycled

aggregate for concrete-class H (in Japanese), 2005.

[9]

Kuroda Y., Hashida H., Nachi Y., Yamazaki N.,

Miyachi Y.; A closed-loop concrete system on a construction site, Technical Research Report of Shimizu
Corporation 79, 2004, pp.1-10 (in Japanese).

[10] Yanagibashi K.; Inventory and analysis on a process of

recycling aggregate for concrete, Construction
Materials, Vol.13 No.1, 2004, pp.38-45 (in Japanese).
[11] Nippon Slag Association 2005. Annual Statistics
Report of Iron and Steel Slag,
http://www.slag.jp/e/index.htm, 2005.
[12] Shikoku Chapter of Japan Society of Civil Engineers
2003, Recommendation on execution of concrete
using fly ash as a fine aggregate substitute (draft) (in
Japanese), 2003.
[13] Takatsuki H.; The Teshima Island industrial waste
case and its process towards resolution. Special feature: Conference Report, Journal of Material Cycles
and Waste Management, 5, 2003, pp.26-30.
[14] Matsuka T., Sakai K., Nakamura T., Kusanagi S.;
Flexure and shear behaviour of reinforced concrete
beams using molten slag from industrial waste,
Journal of Materials, Concrete structures and
Pavements, No.809 V-70, 2006, pp.31-145 (in
Japanese).

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REFERENCES

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Therefore, the infrastructure quality needs to be

improved from an environmental point of view from
now on. In this regard, an environmental-benefit
evaluation of infrastructure construction is essential.
How environmental benefit is integrated into environmental standards as an ISO system to reduce
environmental burdens is a major challenge for the
future.
As the IPCC points out, if a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas is set as the target for 2050, what kind of
strategy should the construction sector take to
respond to the target? It is natural that the amount
of greenhouse gas emission reductions is different
among each industry. Yet, it does not mean the construction industry will be given permission to do
nothing, and it is unreasonable to force only the
material industry, such as the steel or cement industry, to bear the burdens. It is essential to promote
technical innovations concerning structure, construction, maintenance & operation, demolition and recycling in addition to the manufacturing of materials.
To this end, the construction industry needs to continue concrete actions as it creates new approaches to
reduce environmental burdens in all fields related to
construction. Although the construction sector has
basically been considered to be a local industry, it
needs to develop from a global environmental point
of view from now on.

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[15] Matsuka T., Sakai K., Nishigori W., Yokoyama T.,

Nishimoto Y., Onodera S.; Effect of rubbing-reformation in application of various molten slag to concrete,
Journal of Materials, Concrete structures and
Pavements, No.809 V-70, 2006, pp.147-158 (in
Japanese).
[16] Japanese Standards Association (JIS A 5031), Meltsolidified slag aggregate for concrete derived from
municipal solid waste and sewage sludge (in
Japanese), 2006.
[17] Humphreys K., Mahasenan M.; Toward a sustainable
cement industry, Climatic change sub-study 8, World
Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2002.
[18] Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Recommendation
on execution of concrete using blast furnace slag,
Concrete Library 86 (in Japanese), 1996.
[19] Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Recommendation
on execution of concrete using fly ash (draft),
Concrete Library 94 (in Japanese), 1999.
[20] Japan Coal Energy Centre 2006, Annual Report
2005/06,
http://www.jcoal.or.jp/news en/news en.html#061005-1,
2006.
[21] Jahren P.; What are the options? The CO2 case,
STF22A03610 Report, SINTEF, 2003.
[22] Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Recommendation
of environmental performance verification for concrete structures (Draft), JSCE Guidelines for
Concrete, No. 7
[23] Sakai K.; Environmental Design for Concrete
Structures (Invited paper), Journal of Advanced
Concrete Technology, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp.17-28,
February 2005.

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